Okay. So what's up. 

Well, for starters, I'm being horrible and not studying for my last final like I should be. 

One side of my mind keeps saying, "Dude, you've only studied for it like twice. That's not enough. You have a ton of memorizing to do." 

And the other side of my mind says, "Eeeh, I've got all of Tuesday and Wednesday to stuuuudy. It's practically winter vacaaaaation and I don't have claaaaasses, so I have all this freeeeeee time to paint my  nails, goof off, knit, read, watch a tv episode..." 

And apparently post on my blog. 

Yes, my mind has two personalities that hold conversations. Don't judge. 

In other news: it's winter. Ugh. 

Rain and sleet = iceeeee, people!

I now work Sundays in housekeeping at a hotel (well, "now" meaning for like the past month or so...), and yeah, I soooo love it. ;) Especially the early morning on a weekend. 

But it brings in the little extra I need for school next semester. 

My face shows how much I love it. ;) And oh, I get an awesome uniform. :P With a shiny name-tag. lol. 

So what do I do after a long day of picking up dirty linen & trash, and vacuuming halls? 

I shower, put on my favorite "I *heart* Batman" t-shirt, and watch "The Dark Knight Rises". 3 awesome, sexy dudes in 1 movie? Um, yeeeeeeeees. :D Christian Bale! Joseph Gordon-Levitt! Tom Hardy!

Too bad Tom Hardy's face and voice are indistinguishable. *sad*

It's still one awesome movie, 2nd viewing. 

Happy Hanukkah!

Hey! So. What's a-goin on in Sam's life? 

The plague!

The curse!

The misery!

The pain!

The agony!

The studying!

Yeah. It's called finals. What else? :P 

This is how Sam gets studying done: 

pretty high on coffee for starters, on her first cup of chai tea, notebook and textbook and assigned studying spread out. What you don't see is all the papers on my floor that are filled with  notes and extra text stuffage. 

Hahahahahahahahahaha, do you seriously think I'm *that* good and just study? 

Hell no. Especially  not on coffee. 

There's a tooooooooon of procrastinating goin on too. There's the enticements of the internet...

and then there's the enticements of sharpie pens. 

But there's DEFINITELY epic music involved. Two Steps from Hell, you are my heroes this semester. *heart heart*

But, if Sam's a good gal and gets all her studying done, then she can have some

Bond-iiiing time tonight. Bond-ing...get it? 

Yeah, well, I thought it was funny. 

For the record, Daniel Craig is my fav. Bond. Sexaaaay.

Haha, good luck to the rest of you peeps with finals! Me? Well...

4 classes down

3 finals to go

tick tock!

Why is Sam smiling so gleefully while looking completely exhausted at 11:30p.m. on a Tuesday night (November 27th) and giving a thumbs up sign? Isn't it obvious from my face???

At the risk of sounding like I'm crowing (Okay, so I am!): I freakin won NaNoWriMo again! :D After a long, long day on the 27th, I hit what I thought was the 50,000 word mark. I punched my story into the NaNoWriMo website counter and discovered that they didn't consider 2,000 of my words to actually be words like OpenOffice had. It was 9:30p.m. And I being the stubborn gal that I am, said, "What the hell. I'm just gonna finish." So I did. 11:30p.m. I was giving my iphone a thumbs up sign and then fell into bed, dead but victorious. 3 days early too. And let me tell you: it is absolutely crazy to try to write a 50,000 word novel WHILE going to school full-time and working part-time. Crazy. I have no idea why I thought it would be fun. Half the time, I wasn't particularly enjoying writing...I did it out of sheer stubbornness, because my pride would not allow me to admit defeat and give up. When I start something, I hate to be seen as a failure, so I have to finish it. It's a curse and a blessing. NaNo has shown me just how I am such a perfectionist. I can't give up even when it really doesn't matter if I do. Not appearing as a failure is way too important to me. And it was obvious through my stubbornness. On the other hand, I am proud to say that I did NOT let my perfectionist side win the upper hand in the writing process. Instead of stopping constantly to edit and perfect the storyline, I forced myself to just write. And yes, while the story is complete and utter crap, at least I can admit that and not feel ashamed or like a failure. It is crap! The plot has way too many holes, there are far too many characters...to the point of being confusing...and it has a weird ending (Seriously? She goes insane??? Whaaa??) but I'm proud of it being so crappy. Because it means I allowed it to remain that way. It's not a big deal and I didn't stress about it. I'm the perfectionist who finally can say I'm okay with something that's not perfect.

And that feels good.

It's been forever since I've posted! Sowwy.

What have I been up to lately? Well, SCHOOL for starters! This semester will most likely be my easiest semester. It's certainly been my favorite semester so far. Don't get me wrong, I'm still busy as ever and I still stress out about trying to get perfect grades and doing things perfectly. But I love my classes (for the most part). My photography classes have been nothing but funness. I'm surrounded by friends and photography and I love it. It's the highlight of my week. I'm surrounded by people who make me laugh, who get the corny photography jokes, who love photography as much as me, and it is GOOD.

One of my favorite classes so far was when we spent two fun hours in a darkroom, developing one of our own photos, each of us. It's magic to see how it all works out.

Besides school what have I been up to? Well, it's November! That alone should tell you what I'm up to! :P But for those of you who really don't know, November = CRAZY month! FUN month! INSANE month! In other words: NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), where you write a 50,000 word novel from Nov. 1st-Nov. 30th. 

It is currently day #9, and I have 22,000 words. (Yup, I'm ahead.) I was crazy and went all ballistic on the first few days, trying to write as much as I could. Those first few days I was writing about 4,000 words per day. I'm now only writing about 2,000 per day. Proof: (this was on the 3rd day). According to the stats on my profile, I'll be finished my Nov. 20th, my bday. Happy bday to me! ;) We'll see. I have a bunch of school projects due in the next two weeks, so I'll most likely have less time to write. 

But what else fills my time? Well, I have been making time to knit, watch movies/tv shows, read (some!), and drink toooooooooons of tea! But I'm also kept busy with work! Yup, I'm still surrounded by books galore! And look! Shocker! Sam wears glasses! Oh mah. 

How has your November been? 

I'm being immensely good as well as horribly procrastinating right now. Difficult but possible to be both at the same time.

I'm being immensely good because I am currently staying OFF of pinterest and am NOT going through and clipping the preeeeeeeeeeeeetty copy of Better Homes and Gardens that's sitting RIGHT NEXT to me.
Pinterest is the online version of what I do to pretty magazines. Clip and pin to a wall. You should see my bedroom now. The inspiration wall spread. Whoops!

And I'm horribly procrastinating right now...from homework. I have a bunch of reading to do for 3 classes, plus I have to email a professor.
It's ten of ten. I have to shower. I am currently waiting on my coffee. And I keep telling myself, "Eh, it's ONLY reading." *sheepish* But it's true! It IS only reading! I can get that done easy-peasy. At some point. Eventually. Sometime today. :D

What does today look like, plan-wise?
I am going to clean my room...this includes makin the bed. Eh heh.
I am going to make myself a cup of tea (after I finish this cup of coffee and have showered).
I am going to sit down and read up all that homework.
Then, and only then, I am going to tear that Better Homes and Gardens apart. Like literally.
I'll maybe watch a couple episodes of Gilmore Girls.
I'll maybe try out a new recipe...depends if I'm in the mood for baking.
I'll maybe try to hunt down some new knitting patterns. Idle hands and all that stuff...
I'll maybe write. I've felt very writing-ish lately.
I'll maybe drag Booth out for a "just because". Shocker.

In the mean time, I'm going to sit here, lounging on the recliner, with my coffee, reading blogs and checking out facebook, being extreeeeeeemely lazy.

Oh, and by the way? Gooood morning to you too. :)

School starts in two days. The start of my third semester. A year and a half left until I have my Associates in Photography. 

Why did I decide to go to school? I never had a strong urge to go to school. I'm not exactly crazy about school. I like learning, but the whole school setting, classes, deadlines, tests...it's not my favorite thing, though I like the challenge in a way. 

No, as I put it to a friend recently: I'm just a girl, trying to find a place in this world...

I believe I was placed here for a purpose...that purpose is to serve God to the best of my ability. I'm just a girl figuring out what her abilities are exactly to best serve her God. 

I have a slight twinge of blues as I look ahead to this coming semester. But then I just remind myself: I'm finding my place in this world. It's gonna be okay. I'm on top of the world with God beside me. I can work hard, I can get through this, I can kick school's ass...I am capable of great things. Happy New Semester to you all!